Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

"The vertical farm is a world-changing innovation whose time has come. Dickson Despommiers visionary book provides a blueprint for securing the worlds food supply and at the same time solving one of the gravest environmental crises facing us today."--StingImagine a world where every town has their own local food source, grown in the safest way possible, where no drop of water or particle of light is wasted, and where a simple elevator ride can transport you to natures grocery store - imagine the world of the vertical farm.When Columbia professor Dickson Despommier set out to solve America's food, water, and energy crises, he didn't just think big - he thought up. Despommier's stroke of genius, the vertical farm, has excited scientists, architects, and politicians around the globe. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Despommier explains how the vertical farm will have an incredible impact on changing the face of this planet for future generations. Despommier takes readers on an incredible journey inside the vertical farm, buildings filled with fruits and vegetables that will provide local food sources for entire cities. Vertical farms will allow us to:

Grow food 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

Protect crops from unpredictable and harmful weather

Re-use water collected from the indoor environment

Provide jobs for residents

Eliminate use of pesticides, fertilizers, or herbicides

Drastically reduce dependence on fossil fuels

Prevent crop loss due to shipping or storage

Stop agricultural runoff

Vertical farms can be built in abandoned buildings and on deserted lots, transforming our cities into urban landscapes which will provide fresh food grown and harvested just around the corner. Possibly the most important aspect of vertical farms is that they can built by nations with little or no arable land, transforming nations which are currently unable to farm into top food producers. In the tradition of the bestselling The World Without Us, The Vertical Farm is a completely original landmark work destined to become an instant classic

Synopsis:

"The vertical farm is a world-changing innovation whose time has come. Dickson Despommiers visionary book provides a blueprint for securing the worlds food supply and at the same time solving one of the gravest environmental crises facing us today."--StingImagine a world where every town has their own local food source, grown in the safest way possible, where no drop of water or particle of light is wasted, and where a simple elevator ride can transport you to natures grocery store - imagine the world of the vertical farm.When Columbia professor Dickson Despommier set out to solve America's food, water, and energy crises, he didn't just think big - he thought up. Despommier's stroke of genius, the vertical farm, has excited scientists, architects, and politicians around the globe. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Despommier explains how the vertical farm will have an incredible impact on changing the face of this planet for future generations. Despommier takes readers on an incredible journey inside the vertical farm, buildings filled with fruits and vegetables that will provide local food sources for entire cities. Vertical farms will allow us to:

Grow food 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

Protect crops from unpredictable and harmful weather

Re-use water collected from the indoor environment

Provide jobs for residents

Eliminate use of pesticides, fertilizers, or herbicides

Drastically reduce dependence on fossil fuels

Prevent crop loss due to shipping or storage

Stop agricultural runoff

Vertical farms can be built in abandoned buildings and on deserted lots, transforming our cities into urban landscapes which will provide fresh food grown and harvested just around the corner. Possibly the most important aspect of vertical farms is that they can built by nations with little or no arable land, transforming nations which are currently unable to farm into top food producers. In the tradition of the bestselling The World Without Us, The Vertical Farm is a completely original landmark work destined to become an instant classic

Synopsis:

A Library Journal Best Book of 2010

In this groundbreaking exploration of urban agriculture and sustainability, Columbia professor Dickson Despommier explains how vertical farms, in which crops grow inside tall buildings, will have an incredible impact on changing the face of this planet for future generations. A passionate, clear, and, convincing work from one of our worlds leading ecologists, The Vertical Farm is “a visionary book [that] provides a blueprint for securing the worlds food supply and at the same time solving one of the gravest environmental crises facing us today” (Sting).

About the Author

DR. DICKSON DESPOMMIER spent thirty eight years as a professor of microbiology and public health in environmental health sciences at Columbia, where he has won the Best Teacher award six times, and received the national 2003 American Medical Student Association Golden Apple Award for teaching. His work on vertical farms has been featured on such top national media as BBC, French National television, CNN, The Colbert Report, and The Tonight Show, as well as in full-length articles in The New York Times, Time Magazine, Scientific American, and The Washington Post. He recently spoke at the TED Conference, Pop!Tech and the World Science Festival and has been invited by the governments of China, India, Mexico, Jordan, Brazil, Canada, and Korea to work on environmental problems. He has been invited to speak at numerous national and international professional annual meetings as a keynote speaker, and at universities, including Harvard and MIT. He is one of the visionaries featured at the Chicago Museum of Science and Technology. Despommier lives in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

"The vertical farm is a world-changing innovation whose time has come. Dickson Despommiers visionary book provides a blueprint for securing the worlds food supply and at the same time solving one of the gravest environmental crises facing us today."--StingImagine a world where every town has their own local food source, grown in the safest way possible, where no drop of water or particle of light is wasted, and where a simple elevator ride can transport you to natures grocery store - imagine the world of the vertical farm.When Columbia professor Dickson Despommier set out to solve America's food, water, and energy crises, he didn't just think big - he thought up. Despommier's stroke of genius, the vertical farm, has excited scientists, architects, and politicians around the globe. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Despommier explains how the vertical farm will have an incredible impact on changing the face of this planet for future generations. Despommier takes readers on an incredible journey inside the vertical farm, buildings filled with fruits and vegetables that will provide local food sources for entire cities. Vertical farms will allow us to:

Grow food 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

Protect crops from unpredictable and harmful weather

Re-use water collected from the indoor environment

Provide jobs for residents

Eliminate use of pesticides, fertilizers, or herbicides

Drastically reduce dependence on fossil fuels

Prevent crop loss due to shipping or storage

Stop agricultural runoff

Vertical farms can be built in abandoned buildings and on deserted lots, transforming our cities into urban landscapes which will provide fresh food grown and harvested just around the corner. Possibly the most important aspect of vertical farms is that they can built by nations with little or no arable land, transforming nations which are currently unable to farm into top food producers. In the tradition of the bestselling The World Without Us, The Vertical Farm is a completely original landmark work destined to become an instant classic

"Synopsis"
by Netread,

A Library Journal Best Book of 2010

In this groundbreaking exploration of urban agriculture and sustainability, Columbia professor Dickson Despommier explains how vertical farms, in which crops grow inside tall buildings, will have an incredible impact on changing the face of this planet for future generations. A passionate, clear, and, convincing work from one of our worlds leading ecologists, The Vertical Farm is “a visionary book [that] provides a blueprint for securing the worlds food supply and at the same time solving one of the gravest environmental crises facing us today” (Sting).

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